Girlfriend's Best Friend

Chapter 5

           “Did you just admit you would make out with me?” Carter looked at all of us to make sure we’d heard too. I rolled my eyes but not in an annoyed way— this was the typical, cocky Carter.

            “You were right,” Kelli said to me, surprised. “I just had to put her in her place.”

            “Is she going to be mad at you?”

            “She can’t be. I’m her best friend. I’m basically all she has,” Kelli said in a tone that I couldn’t tell was nice or bitchy.

            “You think she’s a slut?” I asked.

            “She is,” Kelli laughed. “I mean, between you and me, she’s never had a boyfriend and that’s because she can’t stick to one guy.”

            “Yeah, you mentioned something about that last night,” I said. “What do you mean?”

            “Like, don’t get me wrong, I love her and everything but every weekend I get a new story about a new guy. And I’ll ask about the guy from the week before and she just says she’s over him. But I think he’s over her. No one likes a whore,” she raised her eyebrows inward and tilted her head slightly, just like how Brooke did.

            “Are you sure you’re friends with her?” I asked.

            She laughed, “Of course I am! But it’s hard keeping her in check all the time, you know?”

            “No, I totally get that. Carter’s like that— you know, always getting with a different girl,” I said, leaving out the part where everyone in my group was like that, including me. “But it’s not like any of us really care. For guys, if your boy gets with a lot of girls, you’re happy for him. For girls, if your best friend gets with a lot of guys everyone hates her.”

            “No one hates Brooke. Trust me, no one. Everywhere she goes, everyone immediately loves her. Especially because she’s so pretty. But she needs someone to take care of her, you know?” she dragged her fingers across the water and then looked back up at me, the sun reflecting off the water and lighting up her eyes.

            “Take care of her? Like when Graham smokes too much pot and gets way too high to the point he’s singing eighties music and snapping his fingers like he’s in a jazz number so we have to take care of him? I get that,” I joked, not realizing I should have been taking her seriously.

            Kelli laughed really loud, her laughter sounding a lot like Brooke’s. She looked over in Brooke’s direction, smiling at her. Brooke fake smiled back at her, her eyes landing on me for a second before walking out of the ocean, five guys following straight behind.

            I bet she wished it could have been six.

          “Let’s go back too,” I said to her, following our friends back. An ice cream vendor called out about the ice cream he was selling and Mattie and Jace were right on top of it, both asking Brooke if they could buy her some.

            “Yeah, sure,” Brooke laughed.

            “You have quite the number of boyfriends,” the vendor joked about my five friends crowding around Brooke.

            “She really does,” Kelli said to him bitterly, but it was obviously meant for Brooke.

            The man gave Brooke her ice cream and walked away. Brooke took it and turned back to Kelli, “But not in a bad way or anything.” The guys and I widened our eyes, realizing she was using Kelli’s own excuse against her.

            “Brooke,” Kelli’s whole tone changed completely. I thought she was about to cry but instead she rubbed the back of her fingers on her jawline which made Brooke’s expression change like she was worried. She handed back the ice cream to Mattie, picked up her bag, grabbed Kelli’s hand and ran off to the bathroom.

            “What was that about?” Duke asked. “Did they just ditch us?”

            “I hope not,” Mattie said. “Did you guys see that scar on Brooke’s face?”

            “Yeah, it’s huge, what was that?” Graham asked.

            “Probably from knocking bitches out,” Carter laughed. “Every time they open their mouths to each other I’m getting ready for a bitch fight.”

            “Yo, I don’t think they like each other,” Jace said.

        “Kelli was saying to me she hates how much of a slut Brooke is and how the attention is always on her,” I said.

            “Brooke was telling us Kelli always gets mad at her for being more outgoing but she could be just as flirty as her,” Mattie said. We looked at him and laughed at how weird it was for him to say ‘flirty.’ “Brooke’s words! Not mine!” he tried to defend himself

            “Code, when are you finally gonna get with Kelli?” Duke asked.

            “Brooke told me to tonight,” I said. “I’m going to ask her to be my girlfriend.”

            “Oh, shit,” Carter laughed. “I didn’t realize you actually liked her that much.”

          “Guys, I really like her,” I said honestly. They all laughed at me saying I didn’t, and that I just wanted a pretty girl to hook up with.

            “All she does is talk shit about Brooke. Like yeah, she’s pretty, but you don’t want a bitch, Code,” Carter warned me.

            “She’s not a bitch, trust me. If Brooke’s right, she’ll say yes when I ask her out and then you guys will be able to see her more the way I do,” I told them. They laughed again and called me soft, but I didn’t have time to convince them that I really did like her because she and Brooke came back.

            “You disappeared out of nowhere, what happened?” I asked, getting the guys’ attention on them so they’d know to stop talking.

          “Nothing, we’re fine,” Brooke said casually, taking her ice cream back from Mattie.

            “Boardwalk?” I suggested. “They’re opening that new cotton candy stand, it’s supposed to be really good.”

            “Do you like cotton candy?” Jace asked Brooke. Kelli rolled her eyes and Mattie and Carter gave me the same look, as if to say ‘see, she’s a bitch.’ I shook my head at them.

            Brooke answered that she did, and Kelli didn’t help me prove my point when she called Brooke out, “No you don’t. You hate it. You just want him to buy it for you.”

            Carter, Mattie, and my other three friends nodded their heads back at me.